Cattle Eat Hay and Grass and Turn It Into Beef

Cellulose. This polysaccharide is an important component of the cell walls of the vegetation that carpets the ground around the world – which leads it to be the polymer in the most abundance on the Earth. It even makes up 40 – 50% of wood!

So, why do I bring this up? It just so happens that the most abundant polymer on Earth is also one of least digestible polymers for simple stomach mammals such as humans, and its main purpose is to serve as a “dietary fiber.”


A field of one form of cellulose - grass hay - that has been mowed and will be baled soon.

Ruminants such as cattle, sheep, and goats, however, are able to digest various forms of cellulose due to microorganisms that live within their gastrointestinal tract. To explain in further detail, ruminants have a complex stomach that consists of four compartments: the reticulum, rumen, omasum, and abomasum. The rumen contains certain bacteria, such as Ruminococcus, which break down cellulose into glucose that can be utilized during energy production. Simply stated, cattle and other ruminants are physiologically designed to eat cellulose because they have a very small amount of the exact right kind of bacteria in their stomach.

I find this astonishing! Such a small percentage of symbiotic bacteria present in the stomach of a ruminant animal allow an otherwise indigestible polysaccharide to be degraded to glucose and utilized for the production of animal protein which can be consumed by humans and feed our families. And remember when I said cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer in the world??

This is a hay baler - it picks up the mowed hay and winds it into
large bales which are used to feed livestock and horses.

These are some pictures from my family’s operation during the hay season. Yes, due to baling hay and other feed production methods, cattle can continue to utilize cellulose to convert it to animal protein throughout late fall and winter when grass is dormant and of poor nutritional value! Long after the pastures have turned brown from the cold, cattle are eating grasses and forages that are unfit for human consumption to produce safe, healthy and wholesome beef.

Thank you for reading,

Jacob

Fall Upson Lecture Series Speaker

Finally!

Food For Thought is thrilled to announce that our Fall Upson Lecture Series speaker will be Kansas Secretary of Agriculture Dale Rodman!

The lecture will take place in the K-State Student Union Main Ballroom at 7 pm on November 5 - put it on your calendar!

Secretary Rodman will address pertinent issues surrounding the recent drought and how it has affected food production and the agriculture industry’s challenge of feeding the world. Furthermore, the impending increase in the cost of food, which affects families from all demographics, will be discussed at length. The lecture is free and open to the public and will be followed by a question and answer session.

We're very excited about this lecture - it promises to be a very informative evening that will highlight some very critical issues in the agriculture industry! 

Tell your friends and be sure to follow our Facebook page and twitter feed (@fftgroup) for updates and information. If you have questions, feel free to post them in the comments section, tweet or Facebook us and we'll get back to you!

I'm An Agronomist

So I'm not really an agronomist but that is the name of a website created by Iowa State University that is dedicated to agronomy education. I found the site while visiting a few friends in Ames, IA this past weekend who had an "I'm An Agronomist" magnet on their fridge. Good advertising, I think.

Anyway, here on Food For Thought, we strive to provide a window into all aspects of agriculture so today I thought an inside look at agronomy would be a change-up.

The motto of I'm An Agronomist is "applying science to fuel and feed our global society" - very catchy and very true. The website addresses issues like bio-energy development, how to confront world hunger and protecting human health. I'm pretty interested in feeding 9 billion people in 50 years so I clicked on the World Hunger link and was pleasantly surprised at the tactics agronomists are using to help solve our world hunger problems:

There are now 854 million undernourished people in our world 820 million in developing countries, 25 million in countries formerly controlled by the Soviet Union, and 9 million in industrialized countries. These numbers reflect the intersection of complex historical, economic and political problems that together have created chronic poverty. The companion to poverty is hunger fed by a lack of access to fertile land and resources to grow food, and /or a lack of sufficient opportunity to generate income to buy food.

The solution to hunger must start from the ground up especially since many of the worlds hungry also live in rural areas. Agronomists use skills and knowledge across the areas of soils, agroecology, climate, crop diversity, and plant breeding to help identify and analyze systemic problems facing the agriculture of an area. Contributing this training to the knowledge and practices of local farmers, in the context of their culture, could generate creative ideas that have the potential to take aim at one of the most unjust and unacceptable problems of our time. In this way, agronomists are, "confronters of world hunger"

I was also interested in the human health portion and after checking out that particular page I learned some nifty info on healthier soybean oils. I'm a supporter of fried chicken, chicken fried steak, fried potatoes, etc - so healthier oils to use while preparing those tasty dishes is relatively important to me.
Neat, huh? I also found a cool podcast link, YouTube videos from ISU's Agronomy Channel and if you're ready to bleed agronomy, red and gold --- several desktop wallpaper themes.

I enjoyed reading more about agronomy and the different technologies utilized in crop production, and I hope you'll give the I'm An Agronomist website a look.

Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~

#foodthanks for the American Farmer

The month of November ranks rather high on my list of favorite months. Not only is it the month of my birthday, but its part of the beautiful fall season and marks a much anticipated holiday- Thanksgiving. Many families take time during the start of the holiday season to give thanks for the most special things that are part of their lives. If any of you are like me and spend much of your free time on Facebook; I’m sure you’ve seen the many status updates aimed at giving Thanks for something different each day.

This simple act of giving thanks is a deed, often gone undone. As American’s we have the honor in being citizens of a free nation. We should give thanks each day to the men and women who fought for our Country’s freedom, and continue to protect this great Country. We have the right to stand up and speak freely for what we believe in, and the ability to worship; regardless of what denomination one might believe in.

As a faithful Christian, loyal American citizen and a proud daughter and granddaughter of an American Farmer and Rancher; part of what I’m so thankful for is American Agriculture. Growing up on a family farm has taught me countless lessons and morals that I carry with me each day. I take pride in being able to work alongside my family; caring for our land, our animals and providing America with safe, affordable, and wholesome food for our neighbors and their families across the country.

As your thinking about your menu this Thanksgiving and making your grocery list, be sure to give thanks to the folks who represent 2 percent of the population; the farmers that provide enough food, fuel and fiber for the remaining 98 percent of Americans. The freedom of being an American farmer provides families with a variety of food choices; whether it comes from conventional, organic, large or small family farms. Agriculture is one of America’s richest traditions, and provides remarkable economic stability for our country. Without the dedication, honesty and hard work of American farmers and ranchers, it would be a little harder to find the words to give #foodthanks this holiday season.

In closing, I leave you with a call to action. Like many of my friends on Facebook, I’m going to give thanks to something each day…But here’s my twist. Of all the many blessings there are to share; I’m going to give #foodthanks each day. So join me in thanking our farmers for providing the nourishment to keep us healthy, clothing to keep us warm, renewable energy to keep our engines and fires burning and for caring for our Earth for future generations of American families to enjoy!

With many thanks,
Kiley

7 billion mouths to feed

The world population hit 7 billion yesterday. That's a lot of mouth's to feed. Emily Jackson put the number in perspective in Butler Ag Ambassador's blog post, which I've also pasted below.

Enjoy,

Chelsea

7,000,000,000 – that’s a pretty big number!! But just how big is it?? According to CNN:

*7 billion seconds ago, the year was 1789, the year George Washington was inaugurated as the first United States President.

*If a person takes 7 billion steps around the equator (at 2 feet per step), they could walk around the Earth at least 106 times.

*Suppose there were 7 billion thimbles filled with water, they could fill up over 5 Olympic sized swimming pools.

*If 7 billion people were stacked on top of each other (considering an average height is 5 feet, including children) they could reach the moon 27 times!

*7 billion ants (at 3 milligrams each) would weigh 23 tons!!!

*And oh yeah, you share the Earth with 7 billion other people.

As many of you may have previously heard, today – Monday, October 31, 2011 – the world population hit seven billion.

Doctors and researchers are already wondering how every child’s basic needs are going to be met! Will there be food, clean water, shelter, education and a decent life? In case you haven’t heard, Mexico’s streets aren’t paved with gold and not everyone has a stainless steel kitchen sink to supply fresh, clean, running water, nor the capabilities to attend school daily and learn about reading, writing and arithmetic. Now, I can’t speak for every issue, but what I do know is food. And, that’s not just because I love to eat it, but more the fact – I produce it!!!

Now more than ever, farmers, especially American farmers are feeling the pressure to supply not only the great USA but also the world with food. And, I’d say with less than 2% of the American population in the production industry still feeding 100% of Americans….they’re doing a pretty good job!!